The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1887-04-09
TWO VETERANS MEET.
One of Them Learns That He Was Dead
and Nearly Buried Years Ago.

James Armstrong of this place, a vet
eran of the Mexican war, land although
was glad to have it it has rather
broken the thread of my "reminiscences
of the past forty years.
''You see l went to Mexico with the
Second Regiment of Pennsylvania vol
unteers, being Lieutenant in company
E. One of the privates in the Company
was young man named William r.
Shields. He was from Greensburg, too.
On the march from Perota to Puebla
Shields became very sick. When we
reached Puebla we took possession of
an old monastery there, and used it as
hospital. When we put Shields in the
hospital he was unconscious, and we all
felt that it was only matter of few
days when we would have to bury him.
Sure enough, one day the surgeon, a
young chap from North Carolina, re-
ported that Shields was dead. We laid
him out on a sort of catafalque on one
of the monastery porches, having placed
the body in coffin. A detail was
ordered to dig his grave and attend to
the interment. We had plenty of time
and could do such things decently Just
then. While poor Shields grave was
being dug one of the old monks of the
monastery came to the coffin, which
wasn't closed yet, and began to num-
BILE prayers over the body. The monk
was in the middle of his mumbling,
when all of sudden he threw up his
hands and exclaimed in Spanish:
"'This man Is not deadr
"Of course we thought the poor monk
was crazy, but we couldn't quiet his
frantic protestations that we were about
to bury live man, and his appeal to
be permitted to have the body carried
to his apartment so that he could ex-
pertinent on it were so earnest that to
satisfy the noisy old chap we had the
body, coffin, and all carried to the
monks room. We thought we'd let
him satisfy himself that Shields was
about as good a dead man as he had
ever seen, and then fetch the body back
and go on with the funeral. If he
hadn't happened to come along, though,
Just then, Shields would have been I'M
der ground within the next twenty
minutes.
while the monk was experimenting
with the body, the command received
orders to leave Puebla at once and
march to the City of Mexico In the
hurry and hustle of preparing for the
march we had no time to think about
the funeral, and left Shields body to b,
disposed of by the monks. The regi-
ment went to the Mexican capital, and
many and many time after that won
dered how long those monks kept the
corpse before they gave up and buried
it.
"Well, the other day was in Kuhn's
law office, when hearty-looking old
gentleman came in.
"'Ah, Colonel says Kuhn to me,
here's another Mexican veteran.
Colonel Armstrong says he, shake
hands with Mr.. Shields William R.
Shields, of Connellsville. He was in
Mexico, too
The name rather startled me, but
of course, only for a moment.
'Shields?' says l. 4 had man in
my company named William R.
Shields says I. Company E, Second
Pennsylvania volunteers
81 was the man. says he. That
was my regiment and company. The
Lieutenant's name was Armstrong,
says he.
"'Well, says 1, considerably stag
gered, if you're the William Shields
that | mean, the last time | saw YOU
you were dead and in your coffin wait
ing to be buried, forty years ago this
spring, at Puebla.'"
81 was very sick at Puebla,' says
Mr.. Shields, staggered considerably
himself, but l have no recollection of
having been dead and coffined
"'Of course not says l, but you
must have heard about it.
"'Never until now,' says he.
"Well, then, I've got nice piece of
news for you says l; but if any one
had told me forty years ago. as l stood
looking at you in your coffin, after
detailing men men to dig your grave,
that would be telling you of it to-day,
I'm afraid l wouldn't have believed
him.
"And l up and told the old gentle
man the story of his death and inter-
rupted funeral. He was as much sur
prised to hear it as | was to see him
alive and in the flesh. 1t seems he had
come to under the care and doctoring
of the monks, but they hadn't said a
word to him about his having been
dead and in his coffin. or if they had he
didn't know it, as they talked only
Spanish. BY the time he was able to
join his regiment the City of Mexico
was taken and the war virtually over.
In the general rejoicing his return was
never noticed particularly, and no one
happened to mention it to him that he
had been dead. So he was ignorant of